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State Politics Tue Apr 05 2011
Politicians Choosing Voters
Karl Klockars of Chicagoist looks at the potential for dire gerrymandering to protect Illinois' Congressional Democrats and "deTea" (Karl's great neologism) those districts where "Tea Party" candidates knocked out Democrats. The map below was generated by a user at Swing State Project.
This map is speculation based on available data. Few things in politics frustrate me more than this kind of chicanery, deterministic redistricting. Other than basic safeguards (prohibiting "cracking" and "packing") ensuring that minorities are not actively denied meaningful representation, redistricting should be wholly free of any political consideration whatever. Otherwise, government is merely artfully arranging the polity to preserve itself, rather than the public artfully arranging government to serve them.
Kevin Boyer / May 27, 2011 2:46 PM
Redistricting has NEVER been free of politics. In fact, one could argue that redistricting is the most political of all that our legislatures do. Aspiring to the "perfect" when the perfect has never been the goal and "perfect" is defined differently by everyone seems masturbatory.